As consumers increasingly rely on their mobile terminals, they desire to take their mobile terminals everywhere they go and have access to them at any time of day. As a result, today's mobile devices are frequently used in environments hostile to the mobile terminal's electronics. For example, a person who takes a cell phone, PDA, or similar device, to the beach risks harming the device by getting the device sandy or wet. Likewise, someone who works outdoors and is exposed to the elements may desire to have a mobile terminal that is water, dirt, and shock resistant. Accordingly, the sealing feature of a display of the mobile device and the device housing is important for the continued operational integrity of the device in the presence of hostile environments with undesirable foreign matter (e.g. water, other fluids, moisture, particulate matter, etc.).
It is also recognised that the length of a seal affects the durability of sealing It is recognised that the longer the seal length, the greater the risk of seal failure during rugged conditions experienced by a mobile terminal. However, longer seals also provide for larger openings between mating parts and therefore provide for greater access into an interior of the mobile terminal once the mating parts are disconnected. More improved sealing arrangements are required while retaining the ruggedness of the mobile terminal.
Further, today's handheld terminals have increasing needs for adaptability for providing an ever increasing degree of user functionality. In certain user requirements, housing reconfiguration potential is desired to flexibly adapt the handheld terminal to the changing user requirements while at the same time providing for durability of the housing to help protect the interior components of the handheld from shocks/impacts experienced by the housing. Accordingly, current handheld housings may not allow for easy removal (e.g., for replacement, repair, cleaning, alternative configuration of the terminal capabilities/functionality of the housed components), in particular for the optimum positioning of one or more antennas installed in the housing of the handheld terminal. As well, interior space in the housing of the handheld is typically at a premium, as today's users prefer the sleeker and smaller units. Ideally, today's users want smaller units with increased functionality, where sometimes these desires are conflicting in reality.
Further, handheld mobile computing devices have proliferated as their usefulness and functionality have improved. To the extent that the handheld device may be configurable or customizable for different classes of user, the utility the devices is enhanced. Handheld computers are available with various means of user input functionality. For example, touch screen displays may be especially desirable for applications where keyboard and mouse systems do not allow a satisfactory, intuitive, rapid, or accurate interaction by the user with the display's content. The touch screen enables a user to interact directly with the information displayed on the display screen, rather than indirectly in the case of a mouse or touchpad. For such classes of users, it is contemplated that a full functionality keyboard may not be necessary. Accordingly, such a class of user may prefer not to incur the cost of a full functionality keyboard, given their needs or applications for handheld computing.
The desire to have other different and/or increased functionality for handheld computers is also popular for different software applications, different types of communication hardware (e.g. antennas) for different jurisdictions, different types of scanners and other imagers (e.g. cameras, barcode readers, RFID readers, etc.), differing amounts of computing power and memory. Further, it is recognised that a change in functionality for one of the components of the handheld terminal (e.g. scanner functionality) may necessitate a change in another related component of the handheld computer. Incompatibility between mounting arrangements that the housing provides and the potential changes in component(s) functionality requires manufacturers to come out with new models incorporating these desired/required functionality changes, thus requiring the user to dispose of their current handheld and purchase a completely new handheld unit.